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eleed - Teachers' professional development in a communityhttp://eleed.campussource.de/archive/4/1251/ 1 of 2410/6/2008 8:30 AM
 
Teachers' professional development in a community:A study of the central actors, their networks and web-based learning
Essi Ryymin
1
, Jiri Lallimo
2
, and Kai Hakkarainen
2
 Author for correspondence, e-mail:
essi.ryymin@edu.hel.fi 
1
University of Tampere, Faculty of Education, Research Centre for Vocational Education
2
University of Helsinki, Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on NetworkedLearning and Knowledge Buildingurn:nbn:de:0009-5-12510
Contributions by authors:
Essi Ryymin has collected and analysed the data, interpreted the results and wrote themanuscript. Jiri Lallimo and Dr. Kai Hakkarainen have provided theoretical andmethodological guidance during the research process.
Abstract
The goal of this article was to study teachers' professional development related to web-basedlearning in the context of the teacher community. The object was to learn in what kind of networks teachers share the knowledge of web-based learning and what are the factors in thecommunity that support or challenge teachers professional development of web-basedlearning. The findings of the study revealed that there are teachers who are especially active,called the central actors in this study, in the teacher community who collaborate and shareknowledge of web-based learning. These central actors share both technical and pedagogicalknowledge of web-based learning in networks that include both internal and external relationsin the community and involve people, artefacts and a variety of media. Furthermore, thecentral actors appear to bridge different fields of teaching expertise in their community. According to the central actors' experiences the important factors that support teachers'professional development of web-based learning in the community are; the possibility to learnfrom colleagues and from everyday working practices, an emotionally safe atmosphere, theleader's personal support and community-level commitment. Also, the flexibility in workplanning, challenging pupils, shared lessons with colleagues, training events in an authenticwork environment and colleagues' professionalism are considered meaningful for professionaldevelopment. As challenges, the knowledge sharing of web-based learning in the communityneeds mutual interests, transactive memory, time and facilities, peer support, a safeatmosphere and meaningful pedagogical practices.On the basis of the findings of the study it is suggested that by intensive collaboration relatedto web-based learning it may be possible to break the boundaries of individual teachershipand create such sociocultural activities which support collaborative professional developmentin the teacher community. Teachers' in-service training programs should be more sensitive tothe culture of teacher communities and teachers' reciprocal relations. Further, teacher trainersshould design teachers' in-service training of web-based learning in co-evolution with
eleed
 
eleed - Teachers' professional development in a communityhttp://eleed.campussource.de/archive/4/1251/ 2 of 2410/6/2008 8:30 AM
supporting networks whichinclude the mediaandartefactsaswellaspeople.
Keywords:
professional development, web-based learning, social network analysis,phenomenography, central actors, teacher community, teachers' in-service training
1. Introduction
In-service training of web-based learning has been widely offered to teachers by a variety of development projects, interventions and training programs. New teaching and workingpractices have been created and technology-supported pedagogical models implemented andfurther developed within schools (e.g., Ryymin, Veermans & Lakkala, 2005)(43). It has beenunderstood that new knowledge as regards the development of new skills and perspectives isstrongly related to the working environment and organizational culture of communities of practices, where, for instance, the roles and relationships of workers have an impact onprofessional development and knowledge creation. (Senge, 1990; Ruohotie, 1996; Wenger,1998)(47)(40)(62). At its best, new knowledge related to the development of new working practices flows freelyamong members of a working community. Also, when promoting technology-supportededucational change in schools, the traditional way of disseminating knowledge from authors toteachers or from trainers to trainees has been unsuccessful. It has been realized that whenestablishing new technology-related innovations it is important to strengthen teacher communities and networks (Granger, Morbey, Lotherington, Owston & Wideman, 2002;Ilomäki, Lakkala & Lehtinen, 2004; Supovitz, 2002)(14)(29)(51). Instead of linearity, newknowledge develops in networks of development participants; ideas and practices extendupwards, downwards, across and around and factors like trust and emotional support havesignificant influence on the process. (Hargreaves & Fullan, 1998; Triggs & John,2004)(23)(53).
The goal of this study
The main aim of this study is to answer the question, “How do teachers contribute to eachothers' professional development in their working environment when implementing web-basedlearning?” According to earlier experiences in teacher in-service training it seems that there are usuallyactive adopters among teachers in development projects, who promote new pedagogicalideas as well as offer formal and informal peer support to their colleagues (e.g., Ilomäki,2002)(28). From these presumptions the following research questions have been designed: Are there exceptionally active, central actors in the teacher community who collaborate in thefield of web-based learning as well as share and mediate the knowledge related to web-basedlearning more than their colleagues? In what kinds of networks do these central actors actand what kind of knowledge they mediate? What are the factors in a teacher communitywhich support teachers to learn the skills of web-based learning? On the other hand, what arethe challenges related in knowledge sharing of web-based learning in the community? Byanswering these questions the goal in this article is to open new perspectives on teachers'professional development related to implementing web-based learning in schools. This newknowledge may be of particular benefit to teacher trainers, as well as other adult educators, tosee the wider context where teachers act and interact today instead of, as traditionally seen,only classrooms and staff meetings. The new aspects offered by this study may encouragethe teacher trainers to realize that teachers are not only “participants” or “learning partners” ineducational interventions, but creators of constantly renewing knowledge. The teachers' roleas knowledge mediators is even more significant in technology-promoted educational changethan it may have been considered before.
The key concepts of the research
 
eleed - Teachers' professional development in a communityhttp://eleed.campussource.de/archive/4/1251/ of 2410/6/2008 8:30 AM
The key concepts of this research are
professionaldevelopment 
,
web-basedlearning 
,
teacher community 
and
central actors 
. In the following sections these concepts are described brieflyto introduce readers to the research context and the starting points of this study.
Professional development 
 According to Beairsto (1996) the concept “intellectual development” involves an extension intothe unfamiliar and the emergence of new concepts, skills and behaviours. Thus “professionaldevelopment” might be used to describe the process of extending into qualitatively new areasof knowledge or ability. In this article, teachers' professional development is reflected in thecontext, where teachers develop new skills and practices of web-based learning. In thisprocess they are considered to learn new working practices and acquire qualitatively newareas of knowledge.
Web-based learning Web-based learning 
refers in this study to the implementation of new, web-based learningpractices in teaching. The teachers in this study implement a web-based learning environment( http://www.opit.wsoy.fi ) which is software designed for supporting problem-based andcollaborative pedagogical practices in schools. It includes several tools for the purpose, for instance, a discussion forum, personal and shared (group) portfolio files, project managementtools and learning materials related to the subjects and content areas of the Finnishcomprehensive and secondary school ( www.oph.fi ) curriculum.The teachers of this study planned and implemented so-called blended courses in their teaching: the web-based learning environment was used in supporting face-to-face studying.For instance, pupils had problem-solving discussions on their learning tasks in the discussionforum, created groupwork in the shared files or made learning material rehearsals with peers(or independently) in the web-based learning environment. The open distance courses or onlyvirtual teaching were not organised in this intervention.Problem-based and collaborative learning refers in this study especially to
progressive inquiry learning 
(Hakkarainen, 2003)(17). Progressive inquiry means a sustained process of advancing and building knowledge characteristic of scientific inquiry. It entails that newknowledge is not simply assimilated but constructed through solving problems of understanding. An essential aspect of this kind of inquiry is to engage collaboratively inimproving shared knowledge objects; hypotheses, theories, explanations, or interpretations.Through intensive collaboration and knowledge building, resources of the whole learningcommunity may be used to facilitate advancement of inquiry. Facilitation of progressiveinquiry at school appears to require changing in the traditional division of cognitive labour between the teachers and students and to encourage students to take responsibility for their cognitive (e.g., questioning, explaining) and metacognitive (e.g., goal-setting, monitoring,evaluating) aspects of inquiry (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987A)(6). However, it is important torealize, that progressive inquiry is an abstract model, which can be applied in various ways inan actual educational setting, and the differences in the pedagogical arrangements havesubstantial effect on the realisation of the process.Further, it is important to emphasize here, that the focus of this study is not on thepedagogical models or practices, but on the teachers' experiences on knowledge sharing andprofessional development. The pedagogical models and practises of technology-supportedinquiry learning are further presented and discussed in other articles (e.g., Ryymin et al.,2005; Ryymin, in press)(43)(44).
Central actors Central actors 
are teachers, who, according to the results of this study, play a central role intheir community related to web-based learning. They are situated in the centre of the
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